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I totally agree. The railway relies on goodwill. Booking-on points asking for overtime, or "ooh you're spare, we're desperate, could you come in 1-2hrs early and cover...." will be getting flat refusals. Manager/platform despatcher requests to couple/uncouple something will be refused. "If it's...

Their economics are way off by the look of it. Did you notice the comparison graph of salaries? According to that bogus diagram, it seems train drivers had a massive increase in wages over the past 2-3 years. Whereas we all know, most train drivers have not had a wage increase in almost 5 years...

From memory, the most daily Eurostar departures from London I ever saw was 31, maybe 32. Harking back to 2012 and the London Olympics, Eurostar ran extra trains in anticipation of big demand (that didn't really materialise). 20 to Paris 10 to Brussels, 1 to Disneyland, and 1 to Avignon. Also...

Indeed. You could purchase: • Through fares from about 100 UK stations. • Eurostar + reserved Thalys fares to the Netherlands and Germany. • Eurostar + Any Dutch station. • Eurostar + Any German station (with different fares according to distance). And ticket offices that actually open, to...

All of the above is great advice. I wanted to add a couple of things not mentioned yet. When there has been strike action, and management were temporarily covering signallers, guards, and other roles, be aware it has been known they may be more prone to error. Question it if it doesn't feel...

It might be a different salary structure in other parts of LNR, like in the West Mids. I'm a Bletchley driver. My starting salary was 28k. It went up to "1st year salary" 46k after 9 months, regardless where I was in training (classroom is completed within 4 months, handling usually takes...

You may! I wasn't a driver then, I had station roles at both Waterloo & St Pancras. I left to become a driver on the WCML because internal recruitment was not possible. @D6130 - funny you should mention Milton Keynes as I live there now :lol: @baz962 - still have to say thanks for posting the...

All Eurostar employees have access to a priv card for UK leisure travel, and a FIP card for european travel. Alas the priv cannot be used to commute to/from work. The travel allowance is based on purchasing a season ticket and the company pays you back some of the costs (when I left in 2019 it...

You can keep your Prets & Greggs. Bletchley Bakery & Café opened this year. I've regularly gone there on a break or when sat spare in Bletchley messroom. If I don't work off the eclairs, I'm going to get too tubby to fit in my uniform :lol...

I should have clarified that is my experience at my current TOC. There are variations of course between companies. Some have higher basic salaries but work some compulsory Sundays etc. Some are instructors and get additional through that. The point I was making was that I have heard of *some*...

Basic is 50-65k for most operators. However it's a 4 day week, Sundays are not included but paid at time and half, plus working the odd rest day, sone drivers do approach 100k. But they're eroding their work/life balance I suppose. Depends on their priorities.

This doesn't surprise me, having lived in Luton for years (it was all I could afford at the time!). I finally escaped the place & people to somewhere leafier... and more intelligent :lol:

Haven't received the typical questions a lot, but I know they are asked a lot! I did have a nice reaction from a phone conversation with a banking/insurance advisor when we were planning to move house. She just went "OoooOOOhhh that's an interesting job!" :lol:

Yeah I'd agree with that. Religious conservatism and fundamentalism tends to be homophobic. However the most homophobia I've witnessed or experienced has come from white British working & middle class men and teens (from when I was at school). They may or may not have been religious, but they...

That's really good that you get to do that. When I was in training, we did vice versa, and got to visit Birmingham New St box with the old style panels, and Worcester Shrub Hill semaphore box to get the Signaller's take on things.

Have been readiing, with interest, this thread a month hence. And now it's Pride month, I thought I should be a bit more umm...visible, in stations, and a colourful wave to camera-toting spotters

Yep, a safety critical role (platform dispatcher, guard etc) on the railway would give you experience in working within safety rules and procedures. In fact any role that works within a srandard of safety rules & regs would be beneficial. It may be worth doing an online Ishihara colourblind test...

Sounds a bit too real :D Maybe they could do an exhibition to show how current British-assembled trains are the new British Leyland. Ah yea true. It's still there. I suppose an IET is a later generation bullet train too. I suppose it is for some. It's not a run-of-the-mill EMU. AFAIK the...

I often wonder if the decline has happened because of the lack of loco variety (although it's not entirely down to that!). Largely multiple units running isn't quite the same. I had this conversation a few years back with fellow (older) volunteers at the NRM York. I asked what would be put on...

My error, apologies. It isn't engineering work that's shutting sales. It's the change of timetable that happens in May. So they've closed sales certain weekends.